This invention relates generally to a control apparatus and a method for controlling an internal combustion engine and particularly to a method for controlling the amount of fuel to be injected into the internal combustion engine when the automotive vehicle is accelerated.
In a conventional internal combustion engine, a fuel injection valve is controlled to open for a predetermined period of time under the condition of normal running of the automotive vehicle in synchronism with a signal detected by means of a crank angle sensor. The fuel injection performed during normal running of the vehicle is hereinafter referred to as normal fuel injection. When an automotive vehicle is accelerated, it is desirable to increase the amount of injected fuel as compared with the normal running. This fuel injection performed during acceleration is hereinafter referred to as corrective fuel injection.
Corrective fuel injection has heretofore been performed at the time when a throttle switch has changed from the "on" state to the "off" state, that is, when the throttle valve has changed from the fully closed state to an open state. This is called after-idling correction.
Corrective fuel injection has been also conducted when a full power switch is in the "on" state, that is, when the throttle valve is in the fully open state. This is usually called full power correction.
However, the conventional methods of the corrective fuel injection are unsatisfactory for improving the acceleration performance of the internal combustion engine.